Lakers Players Said Jarred Vanderbilt’s Ejection Came After Dillon Brooks Called Him A ‘P***y’

In a shocking turn of events, Dillon Brooks was at the center of a few altercations during Monday night’s game between the Lakers and Rockets, where Houston took a massive early lead and cruised to a 135-119 win.

In the second quarter, Brooks fouled Jarred Vanderbilt on a drive to the rim, shoving Vanderbilt with one arm as he went up for a dunk, causing the Lakers forward to land awkwardly and fall to the floor. The play was reviewed for a flagrant but kept as a common foul to the chagrin of the Lakers.

Pushing an airborne player is a dangerous play, as a guy in the air is defenseless and a shove can lead to a serious injury if they can’t get their feet under them correctly. Not long after, Vanderbilt took exception to some jostling under the rim from Brooks and earned a technical for shoving Brooks and then an ejection for poking Brooks in the head — with Fred VanVleet quickly and wisely grabbing Brooks and pulling him away to keep his teammate from escalating anything further.

Then in the fourth quarter, Brooks was actually given a Flagrant after swinging his arm down and hitting LeBron James in the head in their latest run-in.

After the game, an unnamed Lakers player told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that Vanderbilt took exception to Brooks calling him a “p***y”, while Anthony Davis hinted at language Brooks used being what set Vanderbilt off, on top of the shove on the dunk attempt.

“He’s going for a wide-open dunk and [Brooks] just pushed him in the back,” Anthony Davis said. “It’s not a safe play. Guys get hurt like that. And you got to know what type of player [Brooks] is. [The referees] kind of let that just keep going on and [Brooks] kind of provoked it. He talks and says whatever he wants to the refs, to players and at the end of the day, we’re men.

“No man is going to talk towards another man the way he was talking to Vando. So, Vando did what he had to do.”

LeBron, meanwhile, was not interested in another round of Dillon Brooks questions, simply responding “next question” when asked about the Rockets instigator after the game.

This was the fourth and final game between the Rockets and Lakers this season, with each team winning twice, so it will be the last time until possibly the Play-In we see them play each other.